The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, has announced a record year in 2021 in helping address the open source talent shortage with more individuals being trained and certified by the organization than ever. This included a 50% increase in individuals passing certification exams across all technology focus areas. Linux Foundation Training & Certification is the world’s largest non-profit supporting open source education and specifically for Kubernetes and Linux certifications for individuals and businesses.
This year, the Linux Foundation grewits catalog of expertly designed and curated training courses by 30, including popular developer topics like DevSecOps, GitOps, Kubernetes, Node.js, RISC-V, Hyperledger, and WebAssembly. These technologies comprise some of the most important pieces of modern infrastructure and are seeing high demand from developers seeking to boost their knowledge and differentiate themselves to potential employers. In fact, paid course enrollments grew 30% year-over-year while free Linux Foundation online courses surpassed 2 million all-time enrollments.
Certifications were also top of mind for the open source developer community, as evidenced by 50% year-over-year growth in hot topics such as Linux and Kubernetes.. New certification exams launched in 2021 included the Kubernetes & Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) and Certified TARS Application Developer (CTAD), which were designed to help professionals demonstrate their knowledge of important cloud native technologies – skills that are in the highest demand by employers. Increases in training course participation and certification were driven, in large part, by the staggering growth in cloud native adoption globally. For example, the Kubernetes project under CNCF recorded a 42% increase in Kubernetes contributors from across 168 countries. Geographies, such as Japan, witnessed even greater growth, with certifications jumping 60% over 2020 levels.
The Linux Foundation Training & Certification also awarded 500 scholarships for training courses and certification exams through its LiFT Scholarship program.In addition, the organization partnered with other non-profit organizations including Blacks in Technology, Women Who Code, TransTech Social Enterprises, and Hacking the Workforce to provide hundreds more training and certification scholarships to their communities.
“The results of our training and certification programs reinforced a key theme for businesses in today’s labor market: you can’t hire your way out of a talent shortage,” said Linux Foundation SVP & GM of Training & Certification Clyde Seepersad. “To achieve your organization’s technology goals, you need to upskill existing staff, and hire under qualified but promising individuals, then provide them with the training to fill the knowledge gaps in your organization.”
Organizations that wish to learn more about how Linux Foundation Training & Certification can help them can do so here.
